The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is focused mainly on entities that dispose of at least one ton of organic material per week to donate or re-purpose the usable food. Any remaining food will be shipped to composting operations. The ban affects about 1,700 businesses and organizations.

Geissler’s supermarket in Agawam says they already had plans in effect before the ban, giving food that’s a day old to the Springfield Rescue Mission. They also have a compost bin that is picked up twice a week.

Tom Scavatto of Geissler’s told 22News that since they put their plans into place, the supermarket’s compactor has been used a lot less and that it “makes it a little cleaner and it takes it a lot longer for it to be picked up so it actually helps us.”

Restaurant owners told me that the ban doesn’t affect them so much because they try to be as efficient with their food use as possible to keep their bottom line strong.